1. Past week few people commented about the need of having a single stream school system in Malaysia. Najib as anticipated played down the issue by saying that it will not be implemented if the people do not want it. As Malaysian, we need to ask ourselves which is more important, political survival of some politicians or the need to be one, as a nation.
2. Some people may argue that the country has progressed over the last 52 years with the current system in place. There isn’t a need to change because education index among Malaysian is high, per capita income is high. We have many highways and tall buildings. Are these criteria enough to measure the maturity and success of a nation?
3. Former Propaganda Minister, Zainuddin Maidin said “Malaysia should emulate Singapore’s single stream school system so as to produce a population that “no longer spoke and acted on racial sentiments”. Well, there is some truth about what the Zainuddin is saying but it is not the only reason. Singapore became what it is today, because of strong political leadership with political will and strong governance. They had one mission and the mission remains the same since 1965. In Malaysia, it is not the same. For e.g. One PM came with out with Islam Hadhari and the next PM made it into “Islam hari hari”. The point I am trying to get at is that our goals change with the PM of the country.
4. The key point that we must accept is that after 52 years of implementing the present education system, the people of this country are still divided along racial lines. The current system of education does not promote trust between the people. It becomes a sore point among many people in the street. We must appreciate that the current system is in place because some people felt it is a must to maintain their mother tongue and the politicians who pushed this ideology did it for the sake of themselves and not the country, Malaysia. These are the very people who govern the nation for 52 years and place their interest first before the nation. I believe it is time to move forward.
5. If we accept the fact that Malaysia comes first before the politicians and the hardcore racist people, then we must do what is right. The right thing is the government must provide a single stream education system. This is not something new. It is practiced worldwide. It is proven beyond the shores of Singapore. In Indonesia, the government there even forces the non Malays to have an Indonesian name but we don’t have to go that far. We must accept that people, who eat, play together and talks in common language maintains a stronger and lasting bond. We must start afresh after having a failed system in the last 52 years.
6. We must have the political will to change. It is better to cut off and starts a new and gets rid of this thorn in the flesh. The government must no longer support vernacular schools. Politicians on both sides must not be held ransom by the votes of people that support vernacular system. The vernacular schools can continue to exist on their own as other private schools in the country. This is done in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei and many other parts of the world. They should not get any government funding. Any government of the day that continues funding vernacular schools either via donation or others means that the government is promoting racial based policies. Maintaining mother tongue and culture should be done at home. Malaysian school system must be devoid of excessive religious infusion and must focus on key elementary subjects. Language classes can be provided within the government system as an option. My not so favorite Education Deputy Minister, Wee Kah Siong may not agree with me. He would argue that it is embeded in the Malaysian constitution. We have change the constitution more than thousand times. Changing it once more makes no difference.
7. As Malaysian, we need to ask ourselves. Which one comes first, the nation or oneself or maintaining mother tongue? Should we sacrifice and continue splitting this nation of ours along racial lines or focused to be as one. To me, Malaysia comes first.
Balasi, sorry for the late reply.
Are you saying English medium schools and vernacular schools only produce the best for our nation ?
The rest not producing the best ?
Let me make it simple okey.
There are 2 category of people.
1) People support 1 school
2) People dont support 1 school
Very clear so far, right ?
Now let’s categorise people under group 1
a) People who really believe children of all race should mix at a very young age. ” Kalau nak melentur buluh, biarlah dari rebungnya” -something like that…..
b) People who want all this children to follow their “system” only. Pressure other race to ikut sahaja.
Category 2 also same.
a) Don’t want the children to mix, take care of their own race sahaja. If not race based parties, kena tutup kedai.
b) Worried that the school standard drop further.
Now I don’t label the people as racist, but can I label them as pentingkan diri sendiri or “jual ikan ”
Is it better ?I haven’t even mention the “dan lain-lain”
Also while I love the English language, you glorify it too much to the point to say that only English medium school is the only solution to get us out of this pickle. I say, let’s move on. We are Malaysians, so let’s work on the Sekolah Kebangsaan One School System in terms of quality and unity.
DG,
You got me wrong….., I’m a product of Sekolah Aminuddin Baki, Kampong Pandan….it’s De school now days…., but was infested with thug’s in 1971 -74.
I’m not gloryfing English….., it’s just that we will be refering to write ups….in english…., and getting some guys in DBP to translate….., and most of the contents are lost.
1 medium…, Yes!, English for science, maths, literature and the rest can be in BM like our home made distorted sejarah, ilmu alam, moral….., lukisan and name the the others.
P.O.L. should be a compulsory subject and a credit is required to obtain a full cert.
Last but not least….Religion should be out from the core subjects…, and should not be taught during schooling hours but after that.
Hope this clears your misconceptions
Balasi, thank you for clarifying your stand on this issue.
Just crossed my mind… what is the motive of the 1Sekolah proponents? It is unlikely to be racial unity since many of them are supporters of UMNO’s policy of racial division.
Could the real reason be to achieve ‘UNITY in provision of education’ by removing the very effective vernacular schools and replacing them with low-quality national schools? Similar to how ‘licensing’ allowed them to achieve economic balancing by controlling business and career opportunities.
Charis14, if you think many of the supporters of 1 school system are BN members, you are mistaken. Which party thrive on race based politics ? Yes, all BN parties.
Which party is the ruling government presently ?
Who holds the key positions with regards to our education policy ?
It doesn’t take a genius to figure this out.
You’ve trained your guns at the wrong target, Raffick. Such recommendations would only inflame racist sentiments further.
Before you ask the govt to stop funding vernacular schools (as bad as they may be for national cohesion), you should first train your guns on the racist and bigotted education system in national schools.
They don’t have to stop the funding, Raffick – they only need to introduce meritocracy, with some affirmative action for the deserving included. When the standards are high enough, and there’s equal opportunities for all, the trend towards vernacular education will reverse itself.
This was evident in the 70s, when the chinese schools were closing due to lack of support from the chinese themselves (who believed that the SK education gave their children an edge over their SJK peers).
The “revival” started after Mahathir’s era of unfettered racism and religious bigotry.
Dear Dr,
I totally agree with you. There need to be a 1 standard stream of schooling for malaysia. If there is different medium school it should be privately funded.
But when we speak of 1 stream, it should also involve MRSM and Matriculation.
-What is the point of having a single stream only to take away one race and put them into MRSM?
- What is the point of calling it single stream when there is tons of government funded pre-university courses such as STPM, and matriculation from every university.
If the BN are really sincere of single stream then it should be wholesale changes. Not halfhearted political motivated ones.
Mahathir and Zainuddin both got it wrong, the second stream of the Singapore education system – the madrasahs
There are 6 full-time madrasahs. They are Madrasah Al-Arabiah Al-Islamiah, Madrasah Al-Irsyad Al-Islamiah, Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah, Madrasah Al-Maarif Al-Islamiah (all girls), Madrasah Alsagoff Al-Arabiah (all girls ), and Madrasah Wak Tanjong Al-Islamiah. They are registered with the Ministry of Education as private education institutions.
All the madrasahs come under the Education Act. Under section 87 and 88 of the Administration of Muslim Law Act, the control of Muslim Religious Schools shall be vested in MUIS.
English, Mathematics and Science are compulsory for all students at primary level. In addition to these three subjects, some madrasahs offer some electives like Geography and History at Secondary.
English, Mathematics and Science are taught in English while Malay Literature and Malay Language are taught in Malay. At primary level, Islamic subjects are taught in English, while at secondary level the medium is Arabic.
Danny
(1) You are right on the Madrasah issue. This is what I suggested here as well. All vernacular schools will be privately funded as what is practice in Singapore where all chinese and madrasah are privately funded. Government only fund the national schools.
The special position of the malays as prescribed under Article 153 of the Constitution is limited in scope to only the reservation of reasonable quotas in these 3 sectors: public services, educational places and business licenses.
Hence, the present rampant racial discriminations practiced on almost every facet of our national life are mostly violations of the Constitution. Examples of these violations are:
(a) Racial discrimination in the appointment and promotion of employees in publicly funded bodies, resulting in these becoming almost mono-raced bodies. These bodies include: the police, civil service, army and various semi and quasi government agencies.
(b) Imposition of compulsory share quota for malays in non-malay companies.
(c) Imposition of compulsory price discounts and quotas in favour of malays in housing projects.
(d) Completely lop-sided allocation of scholarships and seats of learning in clearly unreasonable proportions that reflect racial discriminations.
(e) Blanket barring of non-malays to publicly funded academic institutions (that should include the Mara).
(f) Barring of non-malays from tenders and contracts controlled indirectly or directly by the government.
Our Constitution provides for only one class of citizenship and all citizens are equal before the law.
The presence of Article 153 does not alter this fact, as it is meant only to protect the malays from being “squeezed” by other races by allowing the reservation of reasonable quotas on certain sectors of national life.
However, this Constitution has now been hijacked through decades of hegemony of political power by the ruling party to result in the virtual monopoly of the public sector by a single race.
The ensuing racism, corruption and corrosion of integrity of our democratic institutions have brought serious retrogression to our nation building process in terms of national unity, morality, discipline and competitiveness of our people.
Agree with you, Mr Law Man. But what is the other component parties in BN doing ? Bedding with UMNO, you scratch my back I scratch yours to enrich selected few.
1. How can we dicourage racial polarazition when Malaysian children do not study, play and mix together. So a one -stream school system is long overdue.
2. BM is our national language , Islam is our national religion and the Raja2 Melayu is protected in our constitution. The use of BM must be expanded to not just official government dealings but in all sphere of activities , trade & commerce and private dealings. I believe when commercial consideration demands it everyone will learn , write and speak the language .In doing so the acceptance of usage of BM beome a neccessity and not out of choice.
3. All languages are important be it BM, English, Mandarin, Tamil, Arabic, etc. Therefore MOE must emphasis on language as a subject is compulsory with examination to determine the grades. Only then will children take seriously learning of languages.
4.There are shrotfalls in the present SKM & SKTM school system.Work towards improvemnet should be the answer but not escapism to vernacular schools , which is what is happening today.
5. There are many non-Malays who always keep harping on the Malays being racist and not looking in the mirror to see that Chinese and Indians are no less racists. The fact than BN has been the government for the last 51 years is testamony to racial policy of UMNO,MCA/GERAKAN, MIC/PIP. It just happens that Malays being the majority are seen to be more racist than others. Many younger Malaysian do not know history ; on how Malaya was formed , the social contract that had been agreedby your forefathers in order for Chinese and Indians to be accepted as citizens of Malaya . And above all the special previlege of the Malays , mind you not Bumiputra. The Federation of Malay States in itself says a lot on the power of the Malay rulers , which Malaysians conveniently want to erase from history and young Malaysians are not make aware of.
6. Malay as a race is a tolerable lot , Bukit was given to the Chinese and Tanjong given to Indians and yet the ungrateful non-Malays are asking for more. We are all Malaysians , in my case a Malay of Chinese decendent. We need to intergrate and assimilate and do not forget history,please.
AK,
Started very welll….., but then you jump to the Social Contract….., there is a not even a fibre in the F.C. about all this….., you seem to be harping just like our so call half past six politicians.
What contract AK…?, after 51 years and all these so call old man dead and gone you still wan’t to talk about something that should be buried for good.
Thank god you are a kacuk…., tak sedar diri…, but you realise that the privillage that you have from been one keen to be gods chosen one in this country.
How many more decendant’s from mix parentage…do we need to make sure that the Government will say that the Bumi economy pie is way below 18%. This will be for eternity…., by the way do you have the Chinese Umph..for success…, or just tunggu buah jatuh.
Balasi,
Read Article 153 and the Josali Agreement. The special position of the Malays and social contract are there. What is wrong is violation of the constitution, abuses of NEP by BN over the years. The root cause is that a good policy not implemented well and fairly. We have to blame our politicians for this .
We do not want a repeat of May 13,which in my opinion, a result of the show-off by DAP Chinese that angered the UMNO Malays. A formula has to be agreed – striking a balance between the political power of the Malays and the economic pie of the non-Malays fairly distributed.
Our older generation of Malays, Chinese & Indians were able to live together peacefully and that is what we also wish for our children and future genaration in Malaysia.
I live in a community comprising of 35 residences and all 6 Chinese residents send their children to SRC. Sadly, our children did/do not study and play, mix around together enough to have the bond as truly Malaysian. The parents are OK as we organise makan2 and gotong royong often in my community. We are the older generation that attended a single-stream school system in English.
I’ll go for a single-stream school system in BM as BM is our national languag
By the way, I am a senior partner of my own consultancy practice having circa 100 non-Malays and a equal number of Malays staff. 3 Malays and 3 Chinese directors and we work as a team. So you see, there are many Malays who do not take the special Malay postion for granted. Opportunities given if taken lightly and you do not strive for excellence means nothing in the end.That goes for all, notwithstaning you are a Malay, a Chinese or an Indian.
Comments are acceptable, but please do not condemn and call people names lah. It is not nice.
Azhar,
sorry but I don’t understand when you say non Malays are an ungrateful lot by asking for more ?
My question to you is “Are they asking for more or asking just to be treated fairly ?
Are we talking in the context of one school system or other areas ?
In what way are the non Malays ungrateful ?
Please do clarify. I sincerely want to understand how the “ungratefulness” come into the picture ?
I thought it was a “jual ikan” attitude, however I can’t figure the “tidak mengenang budi” attitude.
Very confuse, cannot see the picture.
Got people don’t want to talk about racism or label people racist, then now ungrateful people come into the picture.
DG
I agree with you. Azhar is out of line here.
Hi Doc,
I was going through all the posts to identify where I had stepped out of line or perhaps where someone else may have been posting on my behalf.
Anyway, it looks like the flood of traffic generated by this post has gotten names all mixed up for a few commentors and also the blog owner
No worries, honest mistaken identity, I trust.
Hi DG,
I think you were referring to AK for the remark AK made.
The number of responses here is staggering, I can understand the mistaken identity. A honest mistake, I am sure.
AK,
Can you cut and paste..Arc.153 and your so call Josali Agreement…., for other’s to peruse…., then all will know about…. the S.C. Since TDMM …himself has admitted that nothing is in writing but it was all in goodwill.
When you have done so….., I will post what Tun Dr. Ismail…, our former DPM ….., had to say about all these carp….of our S.Contract. Bury the past as soon as possible…., this country of our’s cannot survive with handouts….and privillages accorded to one particular race…., knowing that….., GOD DESSIDENT SUCH ACTIONS.
Where do these so call malay leaders draw a line if they are God Fearing……, these guys….in my opinion don’t even believe in GOD.
AK,
After rereading what you wrote…, I feel I had ta add some more comments for you to digest.
MAY 13….., we don’t want a repeat of this incident…, forgive me, you have been mislead just like how I was in 1971…, by my Arts teacher.
There is always two sides to a coin….., why is the Government…so reluctant to have a Royol. Com. to decide once and for all the reason.., behind 513.
Answer : …. Powers to be…., it has alot to do about UMNO been relevant. To can see the game plan repeating.
Did you get me AK ?
Correction…, it should read So not To
correction It should read descend & not other wise,
The claims that Singapore Government closed the vernacular schools and have a single school for all is completely wrong
1. Intake in chinese school started to drop drasticly when parents saw that ENGLISH education led to better jobs. The Singapore government only closed the chinese schools when enrollment became negligible. Nanyang Universdity was closed because with the feeder primary and secondary schools were no more. THERE WAS NO COMPULSION. The choice was by the parents.
2. There is NO SINGLE SYSTEM in Singapore. The Malays can and still choose to study in MADRASAHS. Only not too recently the goverment compelled them to teach English, Maths and Science in addition to religous lessons and Arabic.
In conclusion it was the parents who closed the chinese schools while even today the Malays can isolate themselves in Madrasahs
Seems to the be the trend nowadays – one this, one that and this and that, etc….. and the conclusion….oh, how well sloganeering really works with the Malaysian society. And all this actually started with the slogan 1 Malaysia! Come on everyone, stop being a ONE lemming….oops! sorry, there I am also at it, just like the rest! So, what is really our big problem and the solution…Is it 1 school systrem and 1 Malaysia?? Perhaps the best thing is for every Malaysian, especially the politicians, to search our own souls first before we talk about anything one this and one that agai!. All the best!
Dr
I respect and admire your writting. On this issue, I am actually for and support single school system, but I need to clarify a few things:
If I am not mistaken the single stream school system has already in place since merdeka ( of course in between we change from BE to BM) and Chinese/Tamil stream school are only available at the primary level. Furthermore, this vernacular system is funded 99.9% by the Chinese and Indian community respectively. Unless ones work for these vernacular schools, you would not understand the teachers’ condition, the welfare/salary, etc. are not compatible to what the national schools’ teachers are getting. The new building, equipment and all are antirely funded by the community themselves. So if this is not enough, I dont know what else the government can do or wants to do to kill off the vernacular system. Establishing 1 Sekolah is good, but unless the Government chass away all the Chinese and Indian, there will always be a need for this vernacular schools. The need for this vernacular school I think is really only about learning the basic spoken Mandarin/Tamil, because as I observe, majority of the parents would send their kids to National Secondary Schools and later university. The goverment must also understand it’s the race-based political system that give birth to everything race based from education to applying for an IC. I may be wrong, but dont make the vernacular system the scapegoat for government’s failure in forging a united Malaysia.
Yeap Cheng Liang
Thank you for the admiration. The feeling is mutual when I read your level headed comments which presented in a very professional manner. We need more people like you.
I am not sure about the history portion you mentioned. As indicated there is a lot of misconception here. There is no where we suggest that all other schools is to be close down.
In the single stream, all types of schools are allowed to exist but the government funding applies ony for the national school.
In other words, religious school, chinese school, Tamil school and other similar school must come under the private school category and they have to operate on the basis of charity and business.
Trust this clarifies
hi dr rafick
believe this is my first reply to your post. i have been reading this 1 sekolah untuk semua propagated by group of blogger namely, kijangmas, jebatmustdie, ondastreet … and mostly UMNO blogger and they are very closely aligned to Dr Mahathir.
I don’t know what is the real motivation behind 1 school but before we look into repairing the sympton (vernacular schools) of racial polarization, we should tackle and nip it at the higher level. the people would not want to see this 1 sekolah concept through when you still have 1 group of racists cabinet ministers/pm/dpm who are doing everything for their own gain.
sorry, dr, at this moment, i will strongly disagree and protest any form of idea of 1 school. it’s not about the idea that is not good but it’s not the right time yet.
Anyone who is actively pushing for 1 school, i hate to say it but it is mainly coming from a group of “malays” who are having their own agenda of streamlining of the use of bahasa malaysia/melayu being outlined in the constitution. As you have said it, we have made thousands of times of amendments to the constitution, why not make another one to replace bahasa melayu to bahasa english to be our bahasa kebangsaan?
I also pose a couple of questions to these group of 1-school promoter, if what they really want to achieve with unity to have all races to come together to mingle,
these are my proposed points:
1. Do away with MCKK and all elite malay based school that only admits malay students.
2. Do away with religious schools
3. Open up all higher institutions to all races
of course there are replies to justify my proposed points by these bloggers. it’s never ending.
Dear Jebar Fren
(1) When is the right time?
(2) The people decides whether they want to keep racist minister.
(3) Why English should be National language and not BM? If you are thinking along the line of commerce about the use of English, it has nothing to do with National language. Are you aware that like Chinese language there are many dialects of Bahasa Melayu. If you go to Kelantan and terengganu, you will not be able to understand their language.
The standard Bahasa Malaysia is being propagated to ensure all bumis and other ethnic use one language to communicate. It is not about removing any one culture, identity or language. It is about bringing people together.
As mentioned, I agree that all schools must accept all ethnic background. All religious, Chinese and Tamil school can operate as private schools
The Malay College Kuala Kangsar is for the Malays(Rumpun Melayu) under the auspice of the Raja Raja Melayu. That is the pledge -Selagi Ada Peredaran Bulan dan Bintang di Langit. Period.
Ak,
For a kacuk…., you don’t deserve to comment on this issue.
Balasi,
Do a research, investigate before you condemn lah.
AK,
Forgive me, if I’m at times……, a worthless chute. It’s just that at times…., I just have to let lose my thoughts…. no harm done…., after Dr’s..reply in a another forum I had always taken you as a BRO.
Are we here talking about racist here or about our Bahasa?
Racist? i think there is no negara yang tidak racist….every country must have their own racist on others race or even agama. But the difference is, how extreme racist are they. I think in malaysia most in WM racist antara kaum Sangat Tebal. I had been through this! Bukan sahaja being racist to Cina or bangla but even sama Sarawakian and Sabahan pun racist. But its ok..we know our own place and if we do the same when they go to our place so please blame us…we Just learn it from WM.
And when we talking about bahasa, i think there is no need to arguing on it…if you fluent in any bahasa then what’s the matter? C’mon la bahasa not that main point to make you success! Can you guys see that in Russia, Japan they used their own language but hey they even better than us! maju dari kita!!!! I am not saying that we had to learn from them sebab kita sudah ketinggalan. They already practice this for centuries…But what to do we need to follow what had been asking….like it or not English is important in Malaysia so that others see you as seseorang yang berprestij…
we know our own place and if we do the same when they go to our place so please don’t (correction) blame us…we Just learn it from WM.
Come to think of it. Isn’t the present SMK good enough to bind the students together like what we used to have during our days? We had dedicated Cikgus, we had a mix of students. Why is it not working nowadays? Why are we still looking at primary school? What if, the polarisation persists if not worsen even after converting all school to single streams. Blame it on the other communities for “monopoly” over other businesses? Another 1000X microscope?
I have a better idea for a Malaysian unity plan. Enforce mixed marriage for all Malaysians i.e. you must not marry a person of your own race or religion & everybody is allow to choose his or her own religion.
Before we even start talking about single medium school, we must ask ourselves why this mess and agenda of the present goverment. We need toget the politic right first. Like all malaysian are equals, freedom of religion, free press, anti discrimination laws, human right and two party systems. The reason the people dont want to have single medium school is purely they dont trust the present goverment with all the racist bigots running them. Unless there is a pragymn shift of mind of the majority , I dont say they dont want it but rather they have no confidence with the present goverment misuse of public institution like MACC< ROC< POLICE<JUDICIARY ARMY and Glc.
After 52 years we have dismantled the good system from 100% english to 50% English and 50% Bahasa and finally 100% Bahasa.
Ask yourself through your sincere heart can Bahasa Melayu be a language for Commerce , Science and as a International Language.
It cannot be and will never be. Can only be used for what -I do not know ? For National Unity – I don’t think so.
After leaving school – I never speak much Bahasa except talking to my servant ,facing the police and applying for my Passport.
The root cause – basically we need English.
We sent our first 2 kids to national school because (1) it is walking distance away and (2) we do not know and have no allegiance to Mandarin. However, we sent our 3rd kid to Chinese school even though (i) we had to drive further and fight the traffic jam, (ii) invest in tuition and (iii) learn some Mandarin to be of some help with homework.
The reason why we gave up on national school…
(a) The poor quality and commitment of teachers – this is the MAIN issue. Having had some recent exposure with Chinese school, I can see the huge difference in the teachers’ productivity between national and vernacular schools.
(b) The frequent religious activities / functions – I respect and believe in the importance of imparting religious education for our children. However, why only for 1 religion? What about children from other faith? Can the non-Muslim parents be given the liberty to organise religious classes for their children during the time allocated for religious.
Interesting note : While waiting to pick-up my kid from Chinese school, I realised many parents also converse in English – even with their children. Could these also have given up on the national school?
I agree generally with Tan-Jo’s Creative problem solving 101:
‘Keep the vernacular school teachers and teacher-training/recruitment/ evaluation system. Scrap the syllabus.
Keep the Kebangsaan syllabus. Scrap the teacher-training/recruitment/evaluation system.
Then combine the two together… and voila, first step towards having the best of both worlds. =P’
In addition, get rid of the Ministry of Education administrators. let the vernacular school administrators run the national schools.
Mention education and you will have all the parents up in arms. What they want is the best for their children. Maybe it is considered selfish to think so but hey, Malaysians have been screwed left, right and centre by the ever changing educational policies, and this single stream being the latest one.
In my humble opinion, education has been over-politicised. We should encourage national unity but not at the sake of children’s education.
As I said, do encourage non-Chinese into the Chinese schools but leave the schools alone.
Dear Weng,
Finally here is a Malaysian declaring that the Education Ministry has screwed us left, right and the centre.
I feel the best way is do do away….with national type schools for the first six years….., all students should enroll in vernacular schools eighter chinese or tamil schools…, then all will revert to national schools for their secondary education.
This will leave the politicians pondering……, on their next move….
I was just kidding…..Dr. Rafick.
Dear All
Wow! what a diverse and professional views. I am not able to address all the comments but will address some of the issue raised
(1) Some people indicated that the reasons why vernacular school is popular is because of the quality of education that they provide.
Quality has nothing to do with language. The same school can also continue with the quality education even if they do it under the national stream.
(2) Many has indicated that we are polarized today but fact is this as a result of the current system in place for the past 52 years.
Should we continue the same path for the next 52 years and let our children and grandchildren goes through the same experience that we had and we expect the outcome to be different?
(3) Look at most advance country in the world. They do not have government sponsored multi-stream schools in their country. Each country maintain one stream and allows any other streams operates as a private school. This can be seen in Germany, Holland, Norway, beligium etc
(4) I think we need to argue on the basis “National interest” and not on the basis of why it must be BM and not in English or others. The answer lies in our constitution.
(5) I agree that there are many other factors that contribute to the polarization but education should be the glue that binds this polarization
(6) I am fully aware of the shortcomings in national schools and POL classes being conducted. This need to be addressed as well. I am not happy the way POL is being done today as it is restricted to certain children.
It should be open to all. We should get rid of the “Bahasa Arab and JQaf” from the school hours and conducted it after school hours.
That is how I learn during the 70s. Currently, the national schools has been too infused with Islamic education between 730-100 pm daily. This must stop.
If we have schools that are government sponsored and schools that are privately sponsored then how different is it from the current arrangement ? Vernacular schools were mostly started off as private initiatives. If the government were to insist on a single stream many of these vernacular schools will go private.
The first 7 years of a child’s socialising environment is far more important in inculcating in the child an acceptance of diversity than the rest of the years that they spend in schools. This means the parents and our living and working arrangements that would have far more impact on a highly impressionable child’s mind.
We need diversity in society and more so in education because of “genetic” resiliency and cross fertilisation of ideas that can form the basis of a dynamic society.
Making everyone wear chairman mao’s garb would not unite everyone. It’s not the garb but the person inside. It’s not a rigid one stream system that will unite the people but a sensitising the individual to see our shared humanity and destiny. This can be done in any language.
The truth is that the ability of education to bring people together is limited. On top of that, education – at least secular one – is about the pursuit of knowledge and truth, and hence whatever is taught in schools should be based on the truth and reality in order to unite the students.
But when our society is already polarised by the law and other economic realities, and we tell our children otherwise in school, its likely that the unity lessons will never stick for long or even worse result in a backlash.
What is more distressing is the fact that national education policy is only meant for the masses while our political leaders send their children overseas. Can we believe they have faith in our own educational facilities and that they are sincere in wanting the best for us?
In Malaysia, unfairness is institutionalised. For example, it is alright for certain schools or universities like the Universiti Institut Teknologi Mara to bar non-malays.
So it piques me to hear some blaming vernacular schools for racial tensions. Vernacular schools have never barred malays from enrolling into them unlike Mara educational institutions. If vernacular schools are to be blamed, so too must the Mara institutions.
(A minister responsible for higher education who can make such inflammatory statements confirms that the so-called meritocracy system of university entrance is a sham, since he was able to promise that the percentage for malay applicants will never fall below the previous quota percentage.
Is he suggesting that we should rejoice over our poor education? Please do not confuse quality with quantity.)
I cannot help but think that the politicians have an ulterior motive. If so, please be honest and brave enough to admit it.
With such narrow-minded people in charge, it is difficult to have confidence in any of their suggestions.
When it came to choosing a career, I avoided public services for the fear of being excluded from promotions just like how I was excluded from matriculation etc. Many employers are also very racially defined.
Now, as much as I miss hanging out with people of other races, I end up being with people of my own race.
Looking back, I don’t think our primary vernacular system is the cause of disunity. On the contrary, it enriches our Malaysian heritage. The real problems are with the uneven playing fields that split malays and non-malays from secondary school onwards.
Another examples are the Chinese Indonesians. Most of them don’t even speak their mother tongue, nor do they even carry Chinese names anymore, yet come any major political turmoil, they are targeted by the majority. Is this due to vernacular education?
The government should be aware of the fact that the number of Chinese schools has not increased over the past 30 years despite the need for them due to increased demand from both Chinese and non-Chinese students.
The diversity of education methods in the country is a national treasure and should be upheld. Unity will come from mutual respect and fair treatment for all – not necessarily from a uniform education.
Whether they will take concrete steps to address the imbalance is another matter for, while I am optimistic about the people of Malaysia, I have very little faith in politicians.
kok,
I don’t know whether you realise it or not…., but our politicians have one set of rules for the Bumis…, and another set for non bumis…., I don’t know what they gain from it ?
Pitting yourself with only exposure within your own kind can only build charaters living under a nut shell…., and if this is what the learned Bumis wan’t so be it.
Thousands of graduates from U.M.I.T., are left stranded after they graduate…., unlike TARC & UTAR where under graduates are all plucked up even before they finish their studies.
This speaks volume’s of their achievement.
“On top of that, education – at least secular one – is about the pursuit of knowledge and truth” – Kok
There is a nice hindu phrase : satyam, shivam, sundaram which can be loosely translated as – truth, goodness , beauty.
The perfected man consists of all these and it is also the whole pursuit of life here and the hereafter.
True goodness can only be had with truth. Goodness based on truth is supreme. There is only beauty when there is truth and goodness.
An education solely based on the pursuit of knowledge and truth would be incomplete. Truth, goodness and beauty are free from religion.
Morning Dew,
SAI, WHY FEAR WHEN I”M HERE.., MD….., it’s actually all about… political survival in Malaysia…., they are prepared to sell themselves even to the extent of letting this country going to shits.
Is the language diversity in our educational system a stumbling block to so-called “national unity”? Despite the insistence of this idea by the self-interested ruling elite, it is simply wrong.
And the common use of English did not stop Americans from fighting Britons in the War of Independence. And let us not forget the American Civil War – both sides spoke English.
And to the contrary, we see Europeans of different mother tongues coming together in a democratic manner to forge a united continent in the form of the multilingual European Union with common standards of human rights, governance and democracy.
English-speaking people with different mother tongues are also now living peacefully in five different sovereign and independent countries namely the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
It is time for the Malaysia ruling elite and their ideologues to stop spreading the voodoo of that language diversity hampers national unity.
The root cause of national disunity is none other than the existence of race-based political parties like UMNO, MIC and MCA, which perpetuate race-based affirmative action policies and which only benefit the upper class BN gangs and their sons, daughters and cronies.
“Racial polarisation in the country is not caused by the country vernacular school system but more by the government political, education and economic discriminative policies.” – an educationist said today.
The prime minister and all the Umno ministers will never admit that polarisation arises more out of the race-based policies and privileges one race gets over another.
Similarly, there are other areas of our daily lives where terminologies used have made us view certain practices as privileges rather than sacrifices. For instance, the bumi discount for houses.
The total sale value to the developer is still the same. It is just that the non-malay buyer is likely to be required to pay for some of the discount given to the malays.
But the longer the NEP policies continue and the greater the vehemence with which Umno politicians issue threats, terminologies will change and more people will talk about these practices or policies in words that may not sound as pleasing to the ears of the beneficiaries.
Obviously, at that point we shall probably see a new round of discriminations and disagreements. Unfortunately, as long as only weak people take on leadership roles within Umno, threats will continue, NEP policies will be sustained and corruption will prevail.
That unfortunately is the legacy we have as Malaysians.
The basic building blocks of unity, whether you are uniting different ethnic groups in a country or trying to re-engineer a corporation of differing cultural values, are the same.
The principal parties have to be treated as equals – nor special privileges no favours that would favour one group over another. Any privilege that is given should be given to all on the same basis – for example, special privilege given to the financially poor regardless of race or ethnic origin.
It is only on this equitable footing that you can foster true nationalism and build lasting unity, since each component group will have the same stake in the nation and has equal likelihood in reaping the rewards or suffering the consequences.
My recommendation to the government, not simply as a businessman but also based on pragmatism, is not to waste any more taxpayer ringgit on nationalism programmes until it has established the pre-conditions for its success.
What is sad is that, after almost five decades of independence, we have been unable in Malaysia, to bring globally-vision leaders to the forefront – leaders who can see beyond racial boundaries to recognise the immense sociological and economic potential that can benefit all Malaysians.
Dear ruyom,
I agree with you……, why are this privillages given to the BUMIS,….. if you say a discount is given for a low cost flat or a house that sounds reasonable…..put you on even footing…..but to give a discount for a house worth a million dollars…..smells shit of our NEP.
Who were the formulators ? These guys….don’t deserve to call themselves malaysians. Just see the injustice they have created on the Indians in the estates.
Taking over estates and developing it in the name of development is a shame. Leaving thousands of Indians stranded. Not prepared for Urban migration …..they still try their luck…, flooding areas around Klang valley and a number of towns around the peninsular.
With hardly any knowledge….to upkeep themself….., they were then given he opportunity to redeem themselves by Secret societies belonging to the chinese.
Been vulnerable and for the sake of survival they fell trap to it untill they realise they were been used. Now they have turn as the King Pins of Crime in Malaysia.
Who turn them into one ? Your guess is as good as mine.
I attended sekolah kebangsaan from std 1 to stpm and during my time there there were still some dedicated teachers from the earlier generation.
Today many Indian professionals send their kids to tamil schools because they say the teachers in Tamil schools are very dedicated to teach and there are now producing very good results.
Morever if we have only one stream that would mean the chinese or tamil children would be deprived of learning about their ancient philosophies from their respective cultures and forced to only know the history fed by the government.
From what I heard the Chinese school maths at secondary level is far advanced compared to the add maths in kebangsaan secondary school, I dont think the chinese would want to lose that or the MOE would want to raise standards of maths for all kids.
One kebangsaan secondary school in PJ only enrols chinese kids because they teach Mandarin and that in that school half the spm students get straight As. Can we see that in other kebangsaan schools?
Sima,
Got what you wanted to relay….., but the last paragraph,
just could not grasp. Can you enlighten me….is it SAS?
Dr. Rafick,
Was drafting a reply to you on your seven pointers…, when the computer just hung for no reason…, still have the text with me and will try on it later.
Just to get this curiosity….off my mind…., do you think…, that all SK…..should not teach Ugama in school and let their respective masjid and surau’s to handle it.
I feel too much time is spend on this…., that scares the heck of non muslim parents. overzealous muslim teachers make it much harder and also created a zone of fear….., no thanks to our so call politicians.
Dr, i believe it is a prejudice causing non malay not supporting single stream. for malay, Islam first, malay ( language) second, for Indian language first, others second. for chinese maybe different also. Can the government promise to non malay about their language,religion and culture in future? if the governments unofficial policy to convert all to Islam is there, i dont think national unity cant be achived. do you remember an advertisement in TV about underage non muslim converts can gain government support? its happens 20 years back. how if seeds of Islamisation planted in primary schools? what we can see in single stream is dissapearance of others language, culture and religion.
Doc,
The time for single stream has passed. No longer possible in this day and age. People will want to gravitate towards what they want. We will gravitate towards what benefits us most. If government school offers good and quality education, people will gravitate towards it. No need to refer to constitution and so forth. Lets live and let live with diversity. Alloy, mixture, cross breed, hybrids, hetro, etc have in most cases proven to be better then purebreeds, puritants, homogenious, etc.
What we need to promote is universal good values so that we all learn to respect others for what they are. I hope this is taught in all schools irregardless what type of school it is.
Dr. Raffick wrote:
>2) English, mandarin and Tamil should be thought as well. There is a MOE circular that says that if there are 15 students who wants to learn a particular language, the school must organize it.
Dr. Raffick,
My wife took early retirement after getting fed up teaching in a SMK. She teaches POL part-time in some of these SMK, when there is a shortage of POL teacher.
You know the problems with POL classes after the normal school hours? It sucks.
1) Only start in March each year, end in October.
2) Students finding excuses not to attend even though the parents want their kids to. It is after school hours.
3) Always get cancelled when coincide with some school holidays and activities.
4) Finding difficult to complete the syllabus with such short schedule.
a) Why not include these POL classes into the normal school hours and make it compulsory subject to all students?
b) why were there so many cases of POL results not included in the award of scholarships. This is a yearly problem when the SPM results are out. With next years 10 maximum subjects, how many students will drop POL? So, don’t window dress the whole issue.
Dr Rafick,
You have the impression that people can learn quality mother tongue from national primary schools. You are dead wrong. I have met with a lot of Chinese – and I mean more than 20 of them – that came from national primary schools. NONE of them can write or read in Chinese. Most of them can speak in Chinese though through their interaction with family members.
You said “(2) English, mandarin and Tamil should be thought as well. There is a MOE circular that says that if there are 15 students who wants to learn a particular language, the school must organize it.”. True, the school will organize the mandarin or tamil language classes. But from what I heard it’ll only be a 1 – 1.5 hour session on Saturdays.
Until quality Chinese language education is available in national primary schools there is no way that I will send my kids there.
Creative problem solving 101:
Keep the vernacular school teachers and teacher-training/recruitment/ evaluation system. Scrap the syllabus.
Keep the Kebangsaan syllabus. Scrap the teacher-training/recruitment/evaluation system.
Then combine the two together… and voila, first step towards having the best of both worlds. =P
To do so, we must start with making sure all the stakeholders involved in our children’s future, ie, politicians + education ministry staff, etc, are barred from sending their children overseas. That is the only way to hold them accountable to improve the education system… when their own children’s futures are at stake.
I know many chinese parents this generation no longer send their children to chinese schools because of maintaining culture & mother tongue unlike their grandparents’ generation… this generation, the concern is about the quality of education, the discipline imposed as well as the consistency in syllabus. We all know, everytime we have a new education minister, there’s changes to impose his ‘mark’, just like there’s new slogan everytime there’s a new PM. All noise and no substance.
Dr. Raffick,
I grew up in a Kampung. We were colour blind during our childhood.
My parents sent me to a vernacular primary school and went to the then English secondary school. My Malay kampung friends were sent to SK. We played, we laughed, we fought, we befriend again without a sense of race in our young minds. Those were the colour blind days until I was sent to a boarding school for my upper secondary. Some students were brainwashed with racist propaganda during the 70s. Some of my lower secondary schoolmates turned strangers till these days.
Then came the university days, where we saw the discriminatory selection criteria and the chasm grew. We saw this divide even though we were overseas.
I was in Manchester in 1977. I saw how the Malaysian student association split. It is still vivid, like yesterday. Who were the starters? Your guess is as good as mine. No elaboration needed.
Nowadays, I don’t see kids other than Malays in my kampung, and not many too, when I return to my kampung to look my old friends. Back in the city, I have neighbouring kids who do not even mix with each other even though they are of the same race, be they Malay, Chinese or Indians. Thanks to their parents. Can we say that the education streaming turning these kids solitary animals, let alone interracial mingling?
In SK, we have students being discriminated at such tender age. In SMK, we have teachers saying such thing like “why should I teach them more, they are rich enough to find tuition”. The poison continues year in year out when the SPM, STPM results are released.
This country is already already on the road to Apartheid. Thanks to the politicians. Then, we have the same people myopically look at the bogeyman, shifting all the blames to the bogeyman – vernacular school for the racial chasm they created. Dr. Raffick, sorry to say this even though we know you are not a racist, you too are looking at the rots though a 1000X microscope without looking at the surrounding while performing your CSI.
Look at pre-1998 Indonesia again. Did the Chinese blend well into the Indonesian society? Why were they the scapegoat to all sorts of political sacrifice? So, monolingual streaming works?
My take is that until the days such institutionalised discrimination is buried forever, there is no point of putting the vernacular schools as the bogeymen to all these racial ills. There are always three fingers pointing back at us when we point our finger at others, unless you use all the five fingers.
Having been through all these bulls, I have even sent my kids to Chinese Independent schools to receive what I call quality education, even though I had the benefit of growing up in a Kampung.
Btw, I thank my parents for sending me to a vernacular primary school. Like many others, I speak Malay, Chinese and English well. Forgive me for having left written Malay out for years, as my jobs did not require the language. Otherwise, I too write all the three languages well. With the benefit of being well versed with both English and Chinese well, I travel the world with ease.
Last but not least, back on home ground, I have people calling me Halim even if I were to tell them my name is not Halim.
Tell me Dr. Raffick,
Why should I let my kids to stunt their capabilities, when they are given the choice to learn more languages.
Sorry, quality is subjective. With almost 30 years experience in the education scene, I think I have been in the education scene long enough to know what ‘quality’ is like or about in the Malaysian education system. Anyway, that’s not the issue here. It’s not about single stream that I am supporting or not supporting. In a truly democratic country, just give people the choice, like what it used to be at one time. The big question here is, whatever happened to the English medium schools? It’s only now in existence in name. The only choice closest to this now, I think, wll be the international schools but then that comes with a price as parents have to pay a substantial sum of money for it. Sorry, the medium of instruction in these national schools is not English. You still have Convent, MGS, etc. and they are now also categorised as national schools, but still officially English is no longer the medium of instruction. So, that is also mainly why the vernacular schools are so popular. Perhaps, could someone please name me a national school in Malaysia whereby English is the medium of instruction? So, let us not confuse things here, as in the first place, I did not even talk about national schools. To do that, we first have to know and understand the history of education in Malaysia. This will definitely require an academic approach and a deeper level of discussion and debate. For the time being, hope this brief discussion here is good enough. Thanks!
The Government should maintain PPSMI and strengthen English to make national schools the school of choice for everyone. This is the only way forward as I don’t see any government of the day having the guts to close down vernacular schools in the near future. Give people the choice to choose. When everyone chooses national schools, vernacular schools will close by themselves due to low enrolment.
A lot of parents have sent their children to vernacular schools, not so much because of the mother tongue and culture factors, but more because of the deterioration of standard in the national schools and the all bahasa melayu subjects, which they see will not give their children a good future, especially in their career later. During my time in the 60s and 70s when we had a good mix of english and malay subjects, our parents who are mostly chinese educated had no second thought about sending us to national schools, especially in urban areas. Of course during those days we still had a good mix of teachers and headmasters of different races and most of them were quite dedicated too.
By abolishing PPSMI now the Government is taking a step backwards. We will see the enrolment of non malays in national schools going down further. I am one of those parents considering this move too.
Will single stream school will solve and close the racial gap in Malaysia?
Is it true that after 52 years of implementing the present education system,the people of this country are still divided along racial lines and all countries that implement one stream education policy has achieved national unity and intergration.
IMHO,both policy has it plus and minus point.And one single stream of education is not a gurantee to rid of the racial lines.
Just for comparative reasonning, let us see what happen to countries which practice one stream education such as America, the Balkans and Indonesia to mention a few.
After more than 200 years of independence,America is still dreaming the so call “American Creed”.Even Martin Luther King had his dream of America discarding the racial lines after 150 years of Independence.
To mention a few recent ugly event of racial connotation in America :
- The incident of Rodney King (1992) where two white policemen beat him up.The video sparked racial riots in Los Angeles.
- The inhuman act the whitemen in murdering James Byrd Jr. a blackman by tying him up behind their truck and drag him for miles without any mercy.This incident also sparked racial riots.
- The trial of O.J.Simpson for murder eventhough it is individual case but spark riot and the people open protesting that the trial are racist for blackman being not treated equally.
- Even lately when a white policeman arrested a black prof who had to jump into his own house compound ant try to open the door.Even the comment of President Obama in that incident stired some racial bashing from the white and the black.
In Yugoslavia when communism rule and of cause one stream education policy was carried out for almost half a century.President Tito was the famous president.In 1980 when when Communism collapse and Tito had passed away and the country broke to pieces because of racial,religion and culture.The birth of independence Serbia,Bosnia,Crotia and so on was created solely on the differences of racial,religion and cultures.One stream education did not help in anyway to keep them united I suppose.
In Indonesia it is said that 1bahasa dan 1Bangsa 1budaya is observed but the moment any clash happens the “real victim will be the Indonesian chinese”,just because of prejudis that the chinese had accumulated all their wealth.It is said that there are few thousand Indonesian chinese whom are wealthy had migrated else where and Singapore in recent years.
I must admit that deep in my heart I too support the idealistic of one stream education but looking at our own backyard with so many different races,ethcnic and religion,I prefer to be realistic because for national unity and intergration there are many reason and ways to achieve it.
Stand to be corrected.
pelangisenja,
when you were writing……, on the One stream….., were you writing on a language that you use to communicate or a language to impart Knowledge.
Dr. Rafick,….. most are confuse on this One Stream, our flip flop leaders have made it worst……., so in order to understand what these so call politicians talk about One Stream, we need to ask them…..what they actually mean.
My understanding on one stream….., is to revert to our old school of thoughts that was Englis medium…., and nothing less.
I think Dr u must understand the root caused of why chinese parent are sending kids to chinese school instead of sek keb.
Nowdays you can see lots of malays and indian enroll to chinese school.
It is all about the quality of the education. If the gomen can revamp the whole education and make it so successful, i am sure no matter what races u are, u will enroll your kids into that school.
In chinese school, methods such as math calculation using ur brain & heart is implemented, mandarin is a very popular language in the world, even lots of mat salleh learning mandarin than japanese.
There is no point we go for one stream and when they grow up, there are people who play racist card will spoil what you learn and gain from one stream school. I will remembered the “Pendatang” in my whole life.
I am proud of myself, as I speak good Bahasa Malaysia and Of course I agree with 1 stream school.
But 1 stream means only 1 kind of school , no more agama school, no more chinese school , no more tamil school. But would they ok to abolish agama school?
just my two cents ..
Dear Moonrider,
No offence meant to other commentators…, for I feel religion is a sensitive issue.
Personnally, I feel we should rid Ugama for all national schools. It should be treated as a private entity after school. For religion is between the beholder and God Almighty.
To much of time and restrictions have been impose in the name of religion….., that it has stifle intergration. It’s about time to put it to stop……, if the powers to be have the courage.
Closing ones eyes and sweeping it under the carpet spells disaster in the near future. It will futher erode intergration that we took for granted in the sixties and seventies.
It’s time to put our foot down and say enough is enough,
take from the system and make it private. Then we can sit and talk about the One system…., if not we barking up the wrong tree.
I stand to be corrected…., for I breathe the same air as all of us do. Religion only segregates human of other faiths other then it’s own.
For mankind is stoop so low morally…, that it fails to understand it’s objective.
Schools which once used English as the medium of instruction was definitely one which had helped promote racial integration. And the use of English in the school environment was definitely one which was neutral in the language standpoint of all the different ethnic groups in Malaysia. The best model of this English medium school was one during the mid-70s where 50% of the subjects were taught in English while the other 50% were in Bahasa Malaysia. But what happened to this type of schools? Of course, there are many reasons to this but as far as I can see, the most obvious reason why the character and true essence of this type of school no longer exist now, is mainly because there was no one single political party that has made this type of English medium school their main political aspirations. Hence, instead vernacular schools became even much more popular due to the intensive practice of race-based politics in Malaysia. So, what 1Malaysia or one single school stream are we talking about now? Anyway, thank you UMNO, MCA and MIC for fogetting to promote the English medium schools because you were too preoccupied promoting your own vernucalur schools. Who is to be blamed for all this mess that we are in now? Simple, just find a scapegoat that is the colonial master because English is equated to the colonial master! Logical enough, I rest my case. Thank you.
If integration and unity is an issue caused by vernacular school, may I propose that we ensure there is a healthy mix of students in each school. Vernacular schools, especially Chinese schools are well known for the excellent education records, so why can’t we encourage the non-Chinese to enrol in the school instead?
For the record, I am a product of national school and proud of it but I really do not see the reason for abolishing vernacular schools for the sake of unity.
It’s not the education system that divide the people. It’s the racial policy that divide the people.
Singapore doesn’t have NEP and bumiputra/non bumiputra status. No 1st class and 2nd class citizen.
How do you tell our children that we are all Malaysians, but when they apply for university admission they are told that they are rejected because their skin colors don’t qualify? Even though they have better results than others but their skin colors disqualify them.
Let me ask a question. Malays go to the same stream of schools right? Are they united?
Single stream school is just an excuse to get rid of vernacular schools. Those who suggest single stream school do not have national unity in mind.
I have to agree with the above opinion.
Back in the 70s, my dad sent all his kids to an urban national school because of perceived better economic opportunities for those fluent in English. I must say that national schools in those days are truly secular with a healthy multi-racial mix of students and teachers. We cherished the memories of our growing up days in such setting.
One generation later, national schools have evolved beyond recognition. My brothers and I now send all our kids to vernacular primary schools. Why? Because we no longer have faith that the current national schools will give our kids the kind of learning experience we once had. And we fear that our kids will be exposed to racial and religious discrimination at such young age going by what is happening in national schools.
My daughter had personally experienced such discrimination when she was in a secondary school run by an overzealous Malay Muslim headmistress. The school is slowly turning her into a racist! In the end, I had no choice but to transfer her out to a Methodist school. And a good number of her non-Muslim friends followed suit. That is the end of my faith in national schools.
The problem of unity will not be resolved by forcing everyone to study in national schools if our government continues to close one eye on the problem of institutional racial and religious discrimination.
It will just drive more people away from this country.
AM,
I cannot agree with you more…., then my own personal experience…
My mother’s house in Selayang….., is behind three national type schools…, One day…getting up early..with all the announcements by the PA system of the schools…., I realise it was a schooling day…, but my nephews….were still asleep.
Upon waking them up…, they told me …, non muslim students need not attend school today because the school is celebrating ” MAHLUD NABI “….., my goodness what is happening to our country…
ONE SYSTEM YES……, THROW RELIGION OUT FROM SCHOOLS AND THE NON MUSLIMS WILL CONCUR SENDING THEIR CHILDREN BACK to NATIONAL SCHOOLS.
once for all our goverment the umno BN dont want the rakyat to be clever so that they can hold on to power as long as posible.
Why dont use english for all subjets and mother tongue for melayu,chinese,tamil and so on iban,kadazan ect.
That we call single stream educations and by then we are proud to be a malaysian.
Don’t become like our ex minister “election or ERECTION HA HA
u think learn in english will make you cleverer…. still remember during my time, top student in imperial college was a malay, he was taught during his primary & secondary schools in malay…never hurt him back then.
Top engineering student in japan univ (forgot name of univ already), a malaysian who learnt in malays…got problem, no problem…
Another example, my housemate in uk, pure chinese from China mainland, doing ok fo his master study, never a problem…another housemate, a bangla, also got no prob in his PhD…
Look around u, and dont close ur eyes to achievement that people make without english stream schools….
tres,
Got…, your point….., but you were teaching us to make ROJAK.
You miss the whole point did you….., regret to know that you studied in UK….., anyway all the best for your future.
Sorry to say….., and I cannot say in this Forum…., but it will suffice for me to say….good riddance
balasi,
dont worry about me…i believed i can live without english stream schools…
I agree with most of the commentators above, the logic of single stream school is easy to get, you let the children know one another (from different races) from the young age, they make friends and bond up to their teenage years, they laugh and they cry, sometime they fight too!, and when they were adult, they will reflect that and they will cherish that memory. Just how us reflect and cherish our younger days, the difference is that, it consist of different races and skin color.
Now… if people never mingle with different kind of races, how they going to achieve that? One thing for sure, current system will breed more stereotyping and prejudice.
I remember there is a billboard in KL where three kids of different races smiling and holding with one another. That is not the reality, the reality is that, that kids come to the photo shoot session from three different school, take a photo and going back to their different school, and get paid for the photo shoot, its a fake, isn’t that sad?
Hee,
Agree with you…., but other then just commenting on it…., what is your suggestion to overcome this man made MALAYSIA BOLIH problem.
Don’t just comment…., let loose…and propose so that people out there will incorporate your proposal for future policies.
Dr Raffick,
The root of the problem is not our education system, it’s our politicians. Come to the east malaysian states, you will see that a lot of Malays and Kadazans send their children to Chinese schools, reason being simply that the standard is higher, and they blend in well.
We were never aware of our skin colour, religions, languages (as we are all multi lingual), and we don’t resist each other, well, that’s until the Peninsular political parties come in, when they made us to be conscious of our differences.
1School system- it’s OK if it’s in English, if it’s going to be in Malay, you think that’s going to help us to be internationally competitive? We are going to be left behind.
Perhaps rather looking at it from the racist perspective, look at it from the standard of our education system. The politicians especially the UMNO people need to broaden their view.
We are too afraid to have bold education policies. We give in to this demand and that demand. Why can’t our leaders be brave enough to do what is right and best for our future generations and not be easily swayed by popular opinion?
gov chosen by people…if people want separate schools, in the name of democrazy, they shud follow people’s wish.
honestly, I believed, people right…
Markky,
Malaysian politicians have learned so much on ” FLIP FLOPS ” that if it’s a Olympic event…, our boys and girls….will come back with a GOLD MEDAL.
Markky, our politicians don’t have characters….., they are into politics…..just to enrich themselves….., not to safe guard their com. or the country.
I think the country has totally lost its way with all this 1Malaysia/Unity/Race Relations jargon. And the people now + the millions of the future generations will suffer for our follies.
The main purpose of education MUST be to educate the young. Period.
Education is not to promote unity or any other stupid political agendas. It is not the young who divide themselves. It is not the language that divides. It is not the skin color that divides.
It is us, the parents, us, the administrators, us, the government, us, the learned, the religious, the neighbours, the village heads, et al.
WE have all become racists, knowingly and unknowingly, and as long as we cannot accept this fact and work towards dismantling the last 20 years of racists barriers that we ourselves have erected, anything else that we may try to do to make unity work is doomed to failure. (Of course along the way many businessmen will become millionaires but that is another story for another blog
When was the Bahasa Kebangsaan or, as I knew it Bahasa Malaysia, evolved into Bahasa Melayu? Since we mentioned about Indonesia, I believe there is no Bahasa Jawa as their national language there…
IMHO…
It is never too late.. there are many more generations ahead of us that we must think about and not just us!
Azhar,
I agree with you, it is not language or skin color that divides but people who have an influence on the young people or an important figure in their lives that show or teach them about division.
I grew up with a father who did not see or judge people according to the colour of their skin. I saw how he would extend a helping hand to everyone without prejudice.
I am colour blind because of the example of my father which was the best education system I encountered.
If the thinking of an adult is not right, the thinking of the young will not be very far from the adult. It is difficult for a disease tree to bear good fruits.
Dear Azhar,
Very well said and done…., but can I correct you ? It all started……in the mid seventies. Bloating the Civill services with Malays….., trying to excell better then the non malays…., bring down the passing mark to push for more malays to qualify for seats… in the Universities….all seem to doom this country of our’s Malaysia.
Education cannot unify….the races….., games can ! not the games of today….., but the games that we use to play in our neighbourhood …where even the parent’s take sides. ( Kaunda Kondee, Chopping, Rounders….and Curry masak…..that can last from morming till dusk. )
Our politicians have strayed, it’s time for us to lead them back to where they strayed.
where got konda-kondi, rounders, galah panjang anymore these days…now, PS3, PSP, gameboy, nintendo rule…
tres,
Sebab itulah…., budak budak sekarang tak sedar diri.., nak cuba konon…., dah sangkut….empat bulan tak keluar haid….. ” Claim Kena ROGOL ” ini perempuan. laki pulak……sama sama suka…..dia nak aku bagi.
This is also where we went wrong.
What would the Malays say if we use English as main language in single stream schools? Singapore has the Chinese as majority, but they had chosen to use English in their schools, so can we do the same? Will the Malays agree about it for the sake of national unity? Or the Malays will start to make noise like how the Chinese and indians making noise now in protesting the idea?
Personally I don’t think single stream school is the solution to national unity even though I feel there are much to do in improving our current educational system.
Naesian
(1) The constitution clearly define the use of BM as the national language. It has to be the official language in government and schools.
(2) English, mandarin and Tamil should be thought as well. There is a MOE circular that says that if there are 15 students who wants to learn a particular language, the school must organize it.
(3) We must look at Malaysia first and self centered views second. I am for the use of English in school. My position is that if the government wants to provide multistream then they have to provide English stream, otherwise stick to BM. All other Tamil, Chinese and English schools need to operate as a private school and do not get funding from the government.
Please bear in mind, Singapore National and Official Language is Bahasa Melayu.
The national and official language of the state will remain BM…..for communication purposes…, but English be the language to impart Knowledge.
Mother tongue languages should be taught in schools but not religion….., for it should be a private entity and best left for their own propagation without the interference of the state.
Dr. Rafick,
Can BM…, impart the knowledge in all fields or is it just capable to impart partial known truths that our copy cats have mastered.
Well said, Dr Rafick! IMHO the nation must come first before oneself or one’s race/interest. Just for interest’s sake, in S’pore there are national-type (government regulated) schools as well as private and independent schools. They are run based on the same system but they have the autonomy to run different courses (and the parents are willing to pay for these extras). For example, comparing the ACS (Independent), ACS (Barker Road) and ACS (International). The ACS (Independent) offers the GCE O-levels, Integrated Programme and International Baccalaureate (IB), whereas the ACS (Barker Rd) only offers the GCE O-levels. The ACS (International) is private where students take a 6-year course, with IGCSE in the 4th year and IB in the 6th year. In our country, however, the system is so rigid that there is no flexibility (and I might also say, no imagination) at all whether a student is in a sekolah kebangsaan or vernacular school.
BTW, I’m a Chinese Malaysian and I went to a sekolah kebangsaan from std one until STPM. My university days were all in English but I speak only my mother tongue (which is not Mandarin) at home. So what does that make me? I believe that it makes me a Malaysian.
Ophiocephalus
(1) Well said. Your suggestions is a good one.
Dr Raffick
Sorry but I think you miss the point. The national school system is not what it is that even the ministers and the well connected will not send their children there.
If you are old enough you know people send their kids to English type schools not because they were in awe of the orang putih but to able to get a qualification and then a job.
Now you get a poor education and end up with difficulty in getting a suitable qualification and then to earn a living.
Now you also read about teachers who discriminate. Have you really read studies which show “National Type” schools are better in promoting racial integration? I think the International Schools are better for this but I may be wrong.
Ahchoo
Respectfully, I disagree. I am a product of national school all the way. I am in the first batch of BM based school program since std 1.
I believe I am not racist. My friends who knows me can support my claim that I am not racist. I judge a person by his character and not by skin color or ethnic background.
Many of my good friends are non malays and I and many others like me also benefit from decent paying jobs despite my education background.
Let me saher with you how Chinese Ah Pek think. In Chinese langusge ,
国家= Country = Negara ;
the first word 国 is referring to “Country”
the second word is 家 means “Family”
so when Chinese say “our country” we are referring to “Country+Family”, there is no such thing as “Which one comes first” argument for Chinese. We always believe there is no family if the country doesn’t exist; & vise versa.
Malaysia is so unique bcos we still maintaining our mother tongue and culture both at home & at school, these are our strength Not weakness. If not bcos of the multicultural identity Malaysians have, we would be producing single-language-cheap labour like our neighbor already.
Ah pek
I think you need to broaden your horizon. My apologies, it is not meant to insult but as an honest advice. My apologies again if you are hurt.
Dear drrafik,
I actually don’t know who you are, I started reading your blog lately because of your CSI posting. I seriously Do Not think that you are a racist. You just do not understand how some of us feel about the execution of gov policy in this country.
I have my primary education in SRJK school in a small town in Kelantan. My secondary was a SJK but what I studied was exactly the SAME as yours, all in BM except 1 Chinese language paper. I got strike 9As in my SPM, I was denied any U & matrikulasi , during the interview , those jokers asked me to continue my Form 6 and I have no choice because my family cannot afford to send me else where. I got 2A3B for my STPM, this time I was denied scholarship & even have to wait for the second batch intake from USM and end up accepting “leftover” course – Pure Science. I am not complaining cos i know I am not the only one, there are many other students who has better result than me have to go Singapore, mind you we don’t have colleges back then, so most Chinese end up in TAR college.
So when I heard about single stream education, I have to be cautious, what next after we have singe stream education? then what in? single religion ? then single what?
What we want is just to study in a primary that use mother tongue to teach, for 6 years only! other races can join in , come MIX with us, no problem at all, these school is open to all races! for god’s shake. I don’t know about BM or English, but you just cannot learn Chinese language at home Not for the average joe’s kids, if you don’t believe me go ask Lee Kuan Yew, he is one of the smartest person, see if he can read & write in Chinese after all these years of studying.
If one is able to order “Char Koat Tiu” u at the hawker stall using chinese dialect doesn’t mean he/she have mastered the language.
Sometime I am just wondering, do you guys exactly know what is the difference between a Secondary SK & SJK, the difference is the ONLY 1 Chinese subject, during my days I studied all of other subject like Fizik, Kimia, Ilmu Hisab, Hisab Tambahan, Sejarah, Geografi , all in Bahasa Melayu like the SK students. So the secondary schools are basically single-streamed for a long long time already. But did we MIX well in these schools , No? Why? because we are beside SK & SJK, we are divided into Sekolah Asrama, Sekolah Sains , Maktab Sains, Sekolah Agama, … so which one you want to streamline now?
Dear drrafik,
I actually don’t know who you are, I started reading your blog lately because of your CSI posting. I seriously Do Not think that you are a racist. You just do not understand how some of us feel about the execution of gov policy in this country.
I have my primary education in SRJK school in a small town in Kelantan. My secondary was a SJK but what I studied was exactly the SAME as yours, all in BM except 1 Chinese language paper. I got strike 9As in my SPM, I was denied any U & matrikulasi , during the interview , those jokers asked me to continue my Form 6 and I have no choice because my family cannot afford to send me else where. I got 2A3B for my STPM, this time I was denied scholarship & even have to wait for the second batch intake from USM and end up accepting “leftover” course – Pure Science. I am not complaining cos i know I am not the only one, there are many other students who has better result than me have to go Singapore, mind you we don’t have colleges back then, so most Chinese end up in TAR college.
So when I heard about single stream education, I have to be cautious, what next after we have singe stream education? then what in? single religion ? then single what?
What we want is just to study in a primary that use mother tongue to teach, for 6 years only! other races can join in , come MIX with us, no problem at all, these school is open to all races! for god’s shake. I don’t know about BM or English, but you just cannot learn Chinese language at home Not for the average joe’s kids, if you don’t believe me go ask Lee Kuan Yew, he is one of the smartest person, see if he can read & write in Chinese after all these years of studying.
If one is able to order “Char Koat Tiu” u at the hawker stall using chinese dialect doesn’t mean he/she have mastered the language.
Sometime I am just wondering, do you guys exactly know what is the difference between a Secondary SK & SJK, the difference is the ONLY 1 Chinese subject, during my days I studied all of other subject like Fizik, Kimia, Ilmu Hisab, Hisab Tambahan, Sejarah, Geografi , all in Bahasa Melayu like the SK students. So the secondary schools are basically single-streamed for a long long time already. But did we MIX well in these schools , No? Why? because we are beside SK & SJK, we are divided into Sekolah Asrama, Sekolah Sains , Maktab Sains, Sekolah Agama, … so which one you want to streamline now?
p/s: Sorry for the typos & grammatical errors cos I was a BM educated student after all.
Dr.Rafick,
I think you misunderstood Ah Pek’s post. He has a valid point about the chinese word for “country”. The meaning of “kuo jia” is that a country is actually a family and there should not be any discrimination.
After reading his post I realised that even in a family who all spoke the same mother tongue and brought up in almost the same way, eating almost the same kind of food etc. a family can still be divided and acrimonious. It would seem that the more a family has in terms of material possession the more divided it will be especially when the parents exercise discriminatory policies.
So it is not about language but more so about the environment in which supportive family could be built.
You get Najib & all the ministers to send their kids to this Sekolah Kebangsaan fisrt, then we can start taliking about the so call single stream school or 1 Malaysia school or what ever school they want to call.
Dear Ah Pek
(1) You are missing the point. We the rakyat who love the country must force the government to have 1 school system
(2) Those with money can sent their kids anywhere they like. This include businessman and politicians as well.
So , you want to force those “who-send -their kids else where” leaders to come up with 1 school system for we rakyat ?
Dr, I believed that’s the whole point….
I understand Ah Pek’s point. Najib & all the ministers must have some vested interested in improving the quality of Sekolah Kebangsaan (i.e. by sending their kids there), otherwise lets drop this.
Drraffick, your suggestion (2) ultimately leads to an education caste system.
By forcing 1School down our throats, I pity those poor kids who are at the mercy of politicians and civil servants who will use our education system to further their personal & political agenda. Why? Because the rot doesn’t concern them as they are not going to wallow in it.
I guess the rich doesn’t have to concern themselves with unity ala 1Malaysia 1School.
hi doc
must use some common sense…if our learned and much “internationally” respected dr m oso didnt want to change the system during his era doesnt that ring any bells to u?? It means something in the politician favour(bn) they will never abolish or else how this politicin wants to fill up their fat account back abroad…i mean down under and in south america..
i wander where our “puteri gunung ledang”and her politician hubby spend time nowadays….
Keabsahan rakyat Malaysia untuk melaksanakan sistem ini masih di takuk yang lama terutama sekali dari ahli politik yang bersifat rasis dari parti MCA,DAP,MIC,GERAKAN .
Adalah wadih seperti yang kita semua tahu bahawa satu sistem persekolahan dan satu bahasa penghantar iaitu Bahasa Malaysia adalah prakarsa perting seperti yang dinyatakan olen Teo Kim Seng dan Khoo Khay Kim.
Pemikiran insular seperti yang di tunjukkan oleh ahli-ahli politik dan juga kaum-kaum yang menyokong penerusan sekolah pelbagai aliran adalah mengambarkan betapa rasisnya mereka-mereka ini pada dasarnya walaupun mereka acapkali menyatakan bahawa mereka bukanlah rasis.
Kendatipun begitu usaha perlu di lakukan untuk mengubah ciri-ciri sekolah kebangsaan sekarang untuk lebih mengambarkab ciri-ciri kebangsaan kerana ia telah jauh tersasar dari ciri-ciri asalnya dimana ia telah di Islamisasi kan oleh pihak-pihak yang gagal memahami aspirasi kebangsaan yang tuntas.
Sekiranya kaum-kaum yang mempertahankan sekolah pelbagai aliran dianggap sebagai rasis, apa kata-kata yang patut dilemparkan terhadap Gerakan Mansuhkan PPSMI pula ?
Mempertahankan kedaulatan Bahasa Kebangsaan seperit Gerakkan Mansuhkan PPSMI bukalah rasis, mereka cuma mahu memperkukuhkan kedaulatan Bahasa Kebangsaan yang kita semua cintai.Tetapi masih malu untuk menuturkanya.Sedarlah, kita mempunyai Bahasa Kebangsaan yang kita semua perlu bangga mempertahankannya. Inilah kesilapan kita selama 52 tahun merdeka.Sudah tiba masanya kita semua bangun mendaulatkan Bahasa Kebangsaan kita seperti kata-kata Prof Teo Kim Seng dan Prof Khoo Khay Kim.
Sepertimana yang kita semua maklum, bukan Bahasa Inggeris yang memberikan kita Mercedes Benz,Ferrari hatta membawa manusia pertama ke angkasa lepas.
Kendatipun saya masih menyokong PPSMI.
i dont think who defend these vernaculars schools are racist, in fact, i think who oppose them are the one….
Tres, you are right and also wrong.
Anybody who are against or oppose it can fit into this racist category.
Let me give you some examples.
The racist who oppose one school system really actually wants the children not to mix.
A party fighting for specific rights of a specific race would lose it’s relevance. Can you imagine what will happen to these parties ?
The racist who support the one school system sees it as an opportunity to control these children and bend them to their will.
But of course there is another category of people – people worried that they would lose control and position and in some cases, lose money making opportunities.
Take your pick.
We can’t be sure whether those who oppose or support the one school system are sincere or racist, We can only be certain whether “WE” who support or oppose it, are racist or genuinely sincere about improving our race relationship.
Obviously minus all the “hidden agenda” the one school system will definitely improve the race relationship in the country, however whether it would improve the education quality is another matter altogether.
Dear tres/ DG,
We should not be pointing fingers and calling or branding people as racist….
What we should be doing is to understand how vernacular schools and English medium schools.., supplemented each other to provide and produce the best for our nation.
Only then can we talk about One stream. Just like the old days……., no two hoots about it.
Dr. Rafick, say’s that the F.C. states the importance on BM as the National and Educational language……, but the F.C. did not say English cannot be the language to impart knowledge. It’s at our discretion…., I mean the RAKYAT.
So kush, can we take it that your argument for a single stream school is that the eminence of bahasa malaysia must be preserved and not unity of the rakyat ?
If this is your argument then tell us how a single school stream will boost the language’s eminence ? While you are at it tell us also in what other ways is the government and particularly DBP doing to make bahasa more prominent and respected ?
Putting these 2 side by side and you will see that eminence can not be force-fed into a single stream school system as eminence must come from its own intrinsic value and beauty.